Bringing Smart Cities to Life with People-Centric Technology

At the centre of the concept of smart cities lies the promise that technology can make cities better, and improve the lives of its inhabitants. As countries across Asia race towards this goal however, where people fit into the picture appears to be lost. While we see sparks of how cities have worked to transform themselves into more efficient ecosystems – filled with marvels from electronic gantries powered by satellite navigation technologies, to street lamps equipped with facial recognition cameras –it’s often hard to tell exactly how people have benefitted from these cutting-edge innovations. Ironically enough, the success of a smart city lies in the hands of the people, in how fast people adopt new technologies, how they live with it, interact with it and accept it as part of their daily routine. To accelerate the process, governments need to take proactive steps in encouraging both public institutions and rally private companies to come on board and bring smart city innovations to the masses.

Bringing the smarts to the workplace

With collaboration the current buzz word of the modern workplace, the employees of today expect work tools that offers flexibility, and access to information and connectivity– across a variety of devices and platforms, no less – to be at their fingertips, anywhere and anytime. Adding to that is the trend of talents asking for flexible work arrangements, even working remotely, which means the use of personal devices is then added into the equation, bringing with it another level of complexity and concerns such as security and compatibility of devices. Where some companies may put it down to the cost of doing business, more progressive companies would see an opportunity to leverage this not just away to improve productivity and collaboration between a geographically diverse workforces, but also as a means of attracting and retaining top talent who relish the challenge of pushing boundaries of what’s possible.

Starting them young

Imagine inquisitive minds with a natural thirst for knowledge and a general openness towards trying out new things and it’s easy to see why the education sector is an ideal place to demonstrate the tangible benefits of smart technologies. Gone are the days where classrooms are filled with students passively listening to lecturers dish out information. Today, students want to learn through interactions and discussions, and through deeper learning activities such as tackling problems in groups and then presenting solutions to the wider class. To this end, it is painfully obvious that whiteboards and markers no longer make the cut. To facilitate the learning process, there is a need to introduce tools that allow one to tap on an intuitive touch screen to stream a video, display a document, or even broadcast a lecture to an online audience, allowing students to focus on learning rather than troubleshooting technology, as they should be. As we continue our push towards becoming smart cities, it is critical that we keep people at the heart of it all. After all, what is the purpose of technology if not to make life better?